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From new media to old, much of journalism is just plain common sense.http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)Blogger2296125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-1643986158710624929Wed, 29 Jul 2015 04:02:00 +00002015-07-29T00:05:00.959-04:00APbusinessbusiness journalismcomputer scienceMcClatchynewspapersMcClatchy earnings shows limits of automated storiesThere's been a lot of ballyhoo about AP's use of computer algorithms to generate hundreds of earnings stories.<br /><br />Among AP's reasons was that it could provide much wider coverage. Reporters would still handle the major stuff, the wire service said.<br /><br />At some point, however, the question of quality vs. quantity was going to raise its head. And here's an example of where the automated system fall short. Here's the AP's auto-generated story on McClatchy's recent earnings.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bLlcTjL7Yq8/VbhMwd0GZaI/AAAAAAAADY0/Q1aTY3xSlnY/s1600/McClatchyearnings-072015-automatedstory.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bLlcTjL7Yq8/VbhMwd0GZaI/AAAAAAAADY0/Q1aTY3xSlnY/s400/McClatchyearnings-072015-automatedstory.JPG" width="343" /></a></div>Pretty bare bones stuff. But this isn't a plain-vanilla situation. In fact, there's some serious insight here. This is one of the old-line pure-play media companies and in many ways is a barometer of how midmarket newspapers are likely to fare. And there are, after all, about 62 million shares outstanding, with Yahoo Finance saying that as of the end of March, 119 institutions held shares. That means more than a few people have these shares in their retirement and other accounts (and may not realize it).<br /><br />Here's <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/external/bizj/SIG=13mf09qgp/*http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/blog/morning-roundup/2015/07/mcclatchy-earnings-plummet-in-second-quarter.html?ana=yahoo" target="_blank">another version </a>that, I think, is more reporter generated:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KFGlUhPgaMk/VbhNuhcd62I/AAAAAAAADY8/sZyDUd_qfnE/s1600/McClatchyearnings-072015-nonautomated.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KFGlUhPgaMk/VbhNuhcd62I/AAAAAAAADY8/sZyDUd_qfnE/s400/McClatchyearnings-072015-nonautomated.JPG" width="332" /></a></div>Those second, third and fourth grafs contain some important context. It's not just that the company eked out a profit. It's that the stock's price has plunged about 60 percent since February as it became apparent those earnings -- any earnings -- were generated largely through throwing the ballast overboard on a very leaky ship. So if you read the AP story, you come away with "they made money -- a small bit, but still a profit." Read the other one from American City Business Journals and you'd come away with more understanding and, perhaps, many more questions.<br /><br />There are, I think, going to be a lot of these kinds of stories in the midrange of companies not really big or sexy enough to draw the AP's resources, yet large or important enough in their own way that they deserve more contextual treatment. So, even more so, investor beware and understand the limitations of what AP is doinghttp://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-limits-of-automated-earnings-releases.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-1957457926607991701Tue, 02 Jun 2015 21:12:00 +00002015-06-02T17:12:53.697-04:00health carepersonalThis is why the health cost system is bullshitHere is a good example of why the way health care is paid for in this country is total BS.<br /><br />This week I am going in for some outpatient arthroscopic knee surgery.<br /><br />So a simple question: What is it likely to cost me after insurance?<br /><br />Just try to find that out.<br /><br />My doctor provided me with a CPT code for the procedure and his estimated charges. But then there is the hospital facilities charge, and the anesthesiologist, etc. In other words, lots of hidden charges that would be nice to be able to budget for.<br /><br />An afternoon of phone calls and online research produces nothing but frustration. The "financial counselor" at the hospital says she can only tell me the total billable cost is $18,000 -- but has no breakdown of codes, charges, etc. Blue Cross/Blue Shield says it can't help without codes. D'oh.<br /><br />Its online procedure estimator doesn't let me put in the CPT code, so I'm left to use a general rough procedure -- for which the results bear no resemblance to any of the other figures.<br /><br />So best guess from that is that I will owe somewhere between $1,800 and $2,400. Nothing like a 33% swing.<br /><br />Dear politicians: If you want to control health care costs, cut the demagoguery&nbsp; and start by insisting on transparency in the cost ahead of time. Many of us want to manage our care. But you don't give us the tools to do it.http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/06/this-is-why-health-cost-system-is.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-3253000768932011915Mon, 01 Jun 2015 20:32:00 +00002015-06-01T17:23:23.226-04:00IntuitQuickensoftwareWhy Intuit's Quicken is a bug-filled quagmire I have used Intuit's flagship financial management software, Quicken, for more than a decade. It was a solid piece of software, if somewhat geeky in its earlier versions.<br /><br />But it worked, and it worked well. And when there was a problem, which was rare, Intuit fixed it with some alacrity.<br /><br />That was then. This is now. And it shows how software companies that concentrate more on layering on features and trying to continually get users to upgrade eventually end up in their own quagmire.<br /><br />Quicken is now a bug-filled quagmire. Just check the <a href="https://qlc.intuit.com/?home=true" target="_blank">user forums</a>, which are peppered with issues, not just "how to" questions.<br /><br />It began a few years ago, with Quicken 12, as I remember, when Intuit decided that you could not do cash flow accounting in your budget (in other words, enter negative and positive amounts to budget lines), but instead had to go to double-entry bookkeeping, with income and outflow lines for each applicable category.&nbsp; It also complicated matters with a budget screen that, once you got past January, showed "January" of what appeared to be&nbsp; the following year -- but what really wasn't; if you tried to change that amount you quickly discovered you'd changed the amount for January in the current year.<br /><br />The forums went nuts. Well, users were told, that <i>might</i> be changed in the next edition, but no changes that year. (Some improvements have been made in later editions.)<br /><br />Skip forward to Quicken 15. I've discovered at least three bugs, one of them serious and introduced with a recent update (R7), and a fourth that hasn't affected me but is so serious that it's locked people out of their password-protected data files. The bug is so bad that even the update to "fix" it (R8) can't necessarily unlock those corrupted files, <a href="https://qlc.intuit.com/questions/1165382-update-password-issues-after-quicken-windows-2015-r6-update" target="_blank">according to Inuit's own posting</a>.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>NOTE:</b>&nbsp;This patch cannot unlock files that are already locked. This could not be resolved with product update without adversely impacting the data quality any further.</blockquote>Now, if you are introducing critical flaws with your updates, most of which are applied automatically, you've got a serious, serious issue as a software company. <br /><br />The three bugs I have found fall into the category of one serious and two convenience.<br /><ul><li>With R7, the reconcile function on many registers has stopped working properly. It is failing to always decrement the account totals as you clear individual items. If you do not notice this and click "finish" after clearing all your items, you are likely to get an out of balance warning and Quicken's helpful suggestion to put the excess in a "Misc." category -- which would royally screw things up even more. (The "solution," for now at least, is to click on "finish later" and then go back to reconcile. Usually the amounts have then properly adjusted.) The R8 update did not fix this. And I am far from alone -- there are numerous threads on the customer forums (<a href="https://qlc.intuit.com/questions/1164016-2015-r7-register-totals-do-not-update-always-when-using-reconcile" target="_blank">here's one</a>), but no indication Intuit is paying attention.</li><li>From the beginning, two functions on the calendar have been screwy. These are more convenience issues, but they worked in previous versions and do save time:</li><ul><li>Half the time, if you put in a calendar entry, it does not refresh and show up unless you click to the prior or previous month and then back to the month in which you put the entry.</li><li>If you right (or CTRL-) click on a calendar date and select Add Reminder, a bill reminder comes up automatically with no option to add transfer or income reminders. To get those, you have to go to the "Bill and Income Reminders" tab and then click "Add Reminder." Not a huge deal, but, again, extra clicks and loss of functionality in previous versions.</li></ul></ul>But my issue goes deeper -- it goes to the core of the way Intuit treats customers when they find these kinds of issues. Does Intuit have a simple bug report form? No.&nbsp; You can go to the contact page and choose between calling support (I'm now 28 minutes into an estimated one-hour wait) or online chat (which was closed at 3:30 p.m.! -- and which still had a 45-minute wait earlier in the day). I've tried to report one of these through chat before, but what clearly came through was that the person was following a script and really had no clue what I was talking about (basically came down to install and reinstall, which I'd already done).<br /><br />In other words, there's nothing "quick" about Quicken.<br /><br />To Intuit's credit, it did respond to my plaintive tweets, initially by sending me to the infernal "contact us" form (that generally tries to shunt you off to the customer forums<a href="https://qlc.intuit.com/questions/1165922-won-t-reconcile-if-unposted-transaction-is-same-day-as-closing-date?jump_to=comment_2588837" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://qlc.intuit.com/questions/1165922-won-t-reconcile-if-unposted-transaction-is-same-day-as-closing-date?jump_to=comment_2588837" target="_blank">where the "superusers"&nbsp; tend to tell you you don't know what you're talking about</a> ). The options there? Phone or chat.<br /><br />Later, it tweeted a link to<a href="https://www.research.net/s/QuickenFeedback" target="_blank"> an online survey</a> where you have to vote for what feature you'd like to see improved just so you can dump all the issues into an "other" box. It's lame, but I'd encourage every Quicken user with issues to "flood the zone" so to speak till they take it down.<br /><br />Good software organizations like Mozilla have <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/" target="_blank">an easy way to report issues</a>. They get customer service -- and they don't even charge for their software.<br /><br />One other thing reflects Intuit's "just don't get it" situation. Most times, Quicken will update automatically, if a patch is available, when you start it. (This can be both good and bad -- just ask the users for whom R6 thoroughly corrupted their files. Even the dreaded Microsoft gives you the option of being notified of&nbsp; updates but not applying them till you say so.) But I've had times when the download does not complete. So just go and do it manually, right, by finding the "software update" button off the menus? Ha! There are updates, but you have to do a "one step update," which also involves updating accounts or portfolios, etc. (at least one of them) so you can get a message when that is complete that there is a software update you can download and apply. How screwy is that? (And god forbid that somehow it doesn't download correctly that time, either. Then it's back to "one step update.") How hard would it be to put a " check for updates" entry in the menu as most decent software companies do?<br /><br />In short, there was a time I highly recommended Quicken. Not anymore.<br /><br />Maybe Intuit will get its act back together someday.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I'm in 47 minutes into holding with the repeated assurance that "your call will be answered shortly."<br />Update: One hour, 9 minutes and counting.<br /><br />Update: 1 hour, 32 minutes later. It appears Intuit may have solved the issue with the Mondo patch (which is not noted in the related threads I've been following on the customer forums -- and as noted I already had updated to R8)<a href="http://quicken.intuit.com/support/help/patching/quicken-2015-for-windows-release-notes--updates--and-mondo-patch/GEN86565.html" target="_blank"> http://quicken.intuit.com/support/help/patching/quicken-2015-for-windows-release-notes--updates--and-mondo-patch/GEN86565.html</a><br />The calendar issues are not fully resolved. I'm seeing fewer needs to refresh but the add reminder issue still is unresolved.<br /><br />http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/06/intuits-troubled-quicken.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-8492747626613151544Tue, 05 May 2015 20:51:00 +00002015-05-05T16:54:31.103-04:00accuracyquotesYahooYahoo Finance: Playing a little loose with quotesSo when does butting two quotes together -- even with the attribution in the middle -- become misleading?<br /><br />I generally tell students to avoid it unless there is all but the shortest of breaks between them.<br /><br />Yahoo Finance took some serious liberties with this one, however, in this story about T-Mobile taking on Verizon.<br /><br />Here is the quote in the story:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"There is huge price competition going on among the carriers and it's very good for consumers," he says. "If T-Mobile is willing to eat my contract I'm definitely going to give them consideration, whereas in the past I might not have."</blockquote><br />Now take a look at the video. The first quote begins at 1:50. Then there is a big gap, until the second quote begins at 1:13. I contend this is too much to imply these quotes were said back to back or nearly so. Your thoughts?<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="225" mozallowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no" src="http://finance.yahoo.com/video/t-mobiles-tactic-lure-verizon-133214204.html?format=embed" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="400"></iframe>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/05/yahoo-finance-loose-with-quotes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-4774754943991290061Tue, 24 Mar 2015 17:20:00 +00002015-03-24T13:20:17.258-04:00editingobituariesJohn Means, "The Village Wordsmith" author, dies at 87 Got a sad note this morning from the nephew of John Means, who produced the widely read "The Village Wordsmith" newsletter for the staff of the San Antonio Express-News, that his uncle had died at 87.<br /><br />The Wordsmith was also emailed around to those of us who were part of the editing fraternity. It was always a good read, with great information and examples. I still refer to some of them in my editing class. John was especially good with the dos and don'ts of military usage (which, given the concentration of bases around San Antonio, you'd need to be).<br /><br />From his nephew, Sean P. Means, movie critic, reporter and columnist at The Salt Lake Tribune:<br /><br /><br /><i>It is my sad duty to report that John, my uncle, passed away on Saturday in his home in Schertz, Texas, outside of San Antonio. He was 87.&nbsp;</i><br /><br /><i>&nbsp;John was a lifelong newspaperman, from his days as a cub reporter at age 17 at the Nashville Banner. He worked most of the 1960s at the Memphis Commercial Appeal, reporting on the Tennessee Legislature, among other things. After working as a congressional press aide for six years, he landed at the Washington Post copy desk for nearly two decades, until he retired to San Antonio in 1995. Even then, he couldn’t keep out of the newsroom, and worked part-time at the Express-News from 1995 to 2009 — when, at the age of 80, he took the buyout.&nbsp;</i><br /><br /><i>John was an inspiration to me, to be sure, as he made working at a newspaper look both fun and important — both of which have proven to be true. Thank you for being a fan of “The Village Wordsmith.” I know he got a kick out of writing it, and knowing people were reading it.</i><br /><br />My condolences go to John's family, and I'm saddened once again by the loss of one of the stalwarts of the editing trade. http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/03/john-means-village-wordsmith-author.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-1569854182705926899Sat, 21 Mar 2015 02:47:00 +00002015-03-20T23:08:59.190-04:00ethicsmagazinesphotosJournalism ethics question -- when a picture is only an illusionSo here's today's journalism ethics question.<br /><br />The latest edition of USC's Garnet and Black Magazine​ has a<a href="http://www.gandbmagazine.com/article/2015/03/moms-on-campus" target="_blank"> big story</a> on a woman who was a teenage mom, but has worked hard to be a college student while caring for her 3-year-old daughter. Very nice story and very inspirational stuff.<br /><br />And very nice "awwwwww" photos of mom and daughter.<br /><br />&nbsp;Except ... At the very end of the story there is this: "*Models portrayed in this spread are not Bourne and her daughter, or an actual mother-daughter pair." (The online version I'm linking to has only one photo -- the print version has several, including a full-page one with reverse type over it that starts the story.)<br /><br />So what do you think? A couple of people -- not journalists -- I've shown it to have reacted rather strongly and negative.<br /><br />They feel "taken in." "I'm reading it, enjoying the pictures -- and then it's not them." Would it have made a difference had the mag headed the story with the disclaimer?<br /><br />&nbsp;(I've still yet to figure out what the asterisk refers to.)<br /><br /><i>This is from Chris Rosa, the editor in chief, after I asked him for his thoughts:</i><br /><i><span class="_5yl5" data-reactid=".6j.$mid=11426906890172=2d952b405f5fe824058.2:0.0.0.0.0"><span data-reactid=".6j.$mid=11426906890172=2d952b405f5fe824058.2:0.0.0.0.0.0">"We should have written a disclaimer at the beginning of the post instead of the end. The original photos of the real mother were extremely poor quality and we didn't have time to reschedule with her, so we had to improvise.</span></span>"</i> <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k0J-VXvL95E/VQzbk-OWygI/AAAAAAAACnU/s5E82egznxk/s1600/gandb1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k0J-VXvL95E/VQzbk-OWygI/AAAAAAAACnU/s5E82egznxk/s1600/gandb1.jpg" height="203" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dGkkUb6S8Gs/VQzbkvAnVzI/AAAAAAAACnQ/uhuxLLtVKe0/s1600/gandb2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dGkkUb6S8Gs/VQzbkvAnVzI/AAAAAAAACnQ/uhuxLLtVKe0/s1600/gandb2.jpg" height="203" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MfAM49DZvmM/VQzbk0WVTxI/AAAAAAAACnc/aklG5Hb3Nj0/s1600/gandb3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MfAM49DZvmM/VQzbk0WVTxI/AAAAAAAACnc/aklG5Hb3Nj0/s1600/gandb3.jpg" height="203" width="320" /></a></div>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/03/journalism-ethics-question-when-picture.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-213698700706469595Tue, 10 Mar 2015 12:58:00 +00002015-03-10T08:58:54.739-04:00economicsjournalismjournalism futurejournalism historynews businessWhat does "Big Silicon" mean for journalism and j-schools?There's been a lot written lately about "robots" (i.e., computers) writing news stories, be it routine earnings report at the AP or routine sports stories. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/opinion/sunday/if-an-algorithm-wrote-this-how-would-you-even-know.html" target="_blank">latest reflection on this,</a> in the N.Y. Times, prompted a colleague to pose the question on a Facebook group: "What does robojournalism mean for j-schools and the people that love them?"<br /><br />If we cut through the somewhat visceral reactions these stories tend to invoke, what is happening can actually provide the sort of clarity we need to examine the state of affairs by making us truly assess what journalism is versus "news" and what has been the reality of the industrial process in which it has operated.<br /><br />Here are two responses I posted:<br /><br />It means we have to stop doing the rote stuff and actually think -- constantly -- about how what we're teaching fits into the constantly developing ecosystem. Unfortunately, that is difficult in institutions that on one hand say they value innovation and change -- when it comes to research -- but value stasis more in the curriculum.<br /><hr />One other thought on this. This does not mean the death of journalism. At its heart, journalism will always be a cottage industry -- it relies on one journalist having a relationship with individual sources to extract useful information, detect patterns, supply context and advance knowledge. Much as the financial folks would like it to -- and much to their consternation -- that heart won't change. But that does leave the question of what is "journalism" and what is "news." "News" is largely processing, taking what is in the open already and processing it for presentation over whatever form. That's an industrial process. Every industrial process strives to replace labor with capital. That is what is happening here. <br /><br />So as we look at the "journalism" landscape, it's good to keep that distinction in mind. No computer is going to duplicate <a href="http://www.pierretristam.com/Bobst/library/wf-200.htm" target="_blank">Sy Hersh's work on My Lai</a>, for just one example. Or Jim Risen's on national security. <br /><br />What it means, however, is that journalism has become a creative business, much like art or acting. And our students have to understand that. Going out and covering a news conference, processing it and putting it on the air, online or in the paper, is a job that will be automated as much as possible. Covering a game and writing rote ledes (such as the second example in the Times' story), will be automated as much as possible. <br /><br />This also means our students have to understand they will be treated as actors are -- responsible for their own training and continued preparation. (Ever known someone to go to an audition and the director to say: "Hey, we'll hire you. Now let us send you to acting school."?) And they are much more likely to be part of the "gig economy," not salary men (or women). <br /><br />The clinker in all this for me is that the economics have been that the "news" part of the business has tended to subsidize the journalism part of it. It's also provided a lot of jobs. So as journalism is distilled in the new economic order, will we have the infrastructure (legal, distribution, economic) to support journalism? As other institutions (business, government) get stronger and the Fourth Estate atomizes, is it even possible to develop that kind of infrastructure in an atomized information society? Put another way, would the Pentagon Papers be published today, given the large actual cost and potentially enormous legal and other costs that could have been extracted? For all there is to criticize about them, the large journalism institutions had the reserves -- when they chose to use them. It's a useful litmus question to ask ourselves from time to time. <br /><br />Jay Bender poses the question well in a different form (larger S.C. papers in the background helping smaller ones) in his <a href="http://www.scpress.org/History/bender.html" target="_blank">oral history for the S.C. Press Association</a>. I also recommend the Tow Center's <a href="http://towcenter.org/research/post-industrial-journalism/" target="_blank">report on post-industrial journalism</a>. http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/03/what-does-big-silicon-mean-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-7456299446052791508Thu, 05 Mar 2015 20:59:00 +00002015-03-10T09:06:18.698-04:00miscellaneoussocial mediaMore evidence that social media has infiltrated our livesYes, Charlotte now has a Twitter Lane. Maybe it's referencing the bird calls .... and maybe not ...<br /><br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m14!1m8!1m3!1d3256.710295910088!2d-80.75563122698364!3d35.28832848338451!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x88541e85483531d5%3A0x7403fa23871b8b23!2sTwitter+Ln%2C+Charlotte%2C+NC+28213!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1425588997063" style="border: 0;" width="400"></iframe>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/03/more-evidence-that-social-media-has.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-5568768323227645403Mon, 02 Mar 2015 06:33:00 +00002015-03-02T01:33:26.088-05:00APFOIjournalismobituariesShurrIn memoriam: John Shurr, journalist and AP bureau chiefI had the opportunity to work with three great AP bureau chiefs who had my back in my 18 years with the wire service, the last being John Shurr, with whom I spent nine years in Columbia.<br /><br />So I was saddened to hear of <a href="http://www.thestate.com/2015/03/01/4018567/aps-john-shurr-fighter-for-sc.html" target="_blank">John's passing tonight</a>.<br /><br />It, unfortunately, was not a surprise; those of us who knew John knew he was in declining health, quite possibly from the Agent Orange he was exposed to during the Vietnam War.<br /><br />John and I dealt with the craziness of Susan Smith, the madness of the James Jordan death investigation, women at The Citadel, numerous hurricanes, video poker, lowering the Confederate flag, the Republican wave that took over state government ...<br /><br />Fun times, those.<br /><br />And through it all, I knew I could always go to John for advice and support. It helped that we both had been in charge, at separate times, of the AP's Rhode Island office. In recent years, he and I would often exchange emails chortling at the continued parade of buffoonery by R.I. politicians and lamenting the slow, painful decline of the Providence Journal, at one time one of America's best local papers -- but sometimes overlooked as it was in the umbra of the major-major metros of the East Coast.<br /><br />He's best known in South Carolina for his efforts on behalf of freedom of information, an indefatigable defender of the right of the public to know what its government is doing. And I would hope that in his honor, the Legislature this year would finally pass many of the needed changes to South Carolina's FOI law that include a quicker review process, more reasonable costs and a clear and certain window in which time records must be produced. (And, of course, there is the need to overturn the state Supreme Court's troubling decisions on <a href="http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/06/foi-problematic-sc-ruling.html" target="_blank">meeting agendas</a> and <a href="http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/07/body-blow-two-to-sc-foi.html" target="_blank">autopsy reports</a>.)<br /><br />And as a result of his dedication, in the late 1990s the AP coordinated the first statewide FOI audit in South Carolina that found, as we put it at the time, agencies would get no better than a D if graded on the public schools' grading scale. We found all sorts of obfuscation and harassment, including police demanding IDs from and running the license plates of those requesting records. Sadly, things have only <a href="http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2012/01/columbia-police-really-that-clueless.html" target="_blank">gotten</a> <a href="http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/07/more-sc-foia-follies-from-aps-jeffrey.html" target="_blank">worse</a>.<br /><br />That was John's public face.<br /><br />But in the bureau, he was about as good a CoB (AP lingo for chief of bureau) that you could get. He was no more than 15 feet away in his glass-walled office, complete with the picture of his sailboat, his pride and joy, tossed onshore by Hurricane Hugo. (John got a replacement -- "another hole in the water into which you throw money" -- and he tried several times to get me to crew with him. But I always managed to avoid that -- his reputation as Captain Bligh was not entirely undeserved {grin}.)<br /><br />&nbsp;But John always gave you enough room to do your job.<br /><br />Oh, there was no mistake he was paying attention, as evidenced by those occasional "got a minute" calls from the inner sanctum. But you could always count on the fact that when you needed the resources, John would blow out the budget and ask permission (or forgiveness) from AP's headquarters later.<br /><br />Then there were the years when the AP bureau was like Switzerland, caught in the middle of the Columbia-Spartanburg-Greenville-Charleston newspaper war. There were some strong personalities involved, and afterward he and I would often joke about the S.C. Press Association meeting where the editors started challenging each other -- one had a tight grip on a chair he looked as if he were about to throw -- and John and I just knew, in horror, we were going to have to break up a fight. John, in his way, was able to calm everyone down.<br /><br />And when the folks in New York thought they knew their jobs better than you, John never hesitated to remind them that -- under the old AP -- a CoB ultimately held the stronger hand and to back down.<br /><br />That went so far as the AP's managing editor. A former ME who shall remain unidentified here (but every ex-APer knows) used to write a weekly review, a sort of after-action report, called "Dialogue." It was pretty much a one-way conversation, however. It praised "good" work and took bureaus to task when the ME or the general desk felt they had fallen short (often, as my fellow news editors observed, without asking for explanations).<br /><br />After one winter ice storm, we got blasted. Long story short, our "story" was on the coast, where we knew high winds were blowing salt spray inland, shorting out numerous electrical transformers and leaving thousands dark. We had ice and some snow in the Upstate, but not as many people were affected - the storm that was panicking New York, which was expecting a direct hit, gave us only a glance. We were shorthanded, and I decided it would be foolhardy to call someone in on overtime and make them drive into those conditions. So we concentrated efforts on the coast and used the phones to gather some great material from the Upstate, so good that New York used two of the quotes in its national story. But we got nailed for not enough effort.<br /><br />I wrote a lengthy challenge. But John summed it up with a short, pointed note to the ME: "Please cancel my subscription to Diatribe."<br /><br />That was the kind of person, boss and colleague John was. He will be sorely missed. Karen's and my thoughts and condolences go out to his wife, Debbie. And I'm proud to have worked with a journalist's journalist.<br /><br />http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-memoriam-john-shurr-journalist-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-3282565682977545766Mon, 09 Feb 2015 23:14:00 +00002015-02-09T18:14:16.837-05:00disasterseditingheadlineslayoutThe StateAt times of trauma, pay special attention to layoutThe State in Columbia, S.C., did yeoman's work in covering last week's murder-suicide at the University of South Carolina.<br /><br />But the front page the next day points out why in times of trauma, everyone has to be on high alert for issues in every part of the paper and website.<br /><br />Might have wanted to rethink that lower hed:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vWHW1BjktL4/VNk_FkqZ8sI/AAAAAAAACW0/qaLlWMI63zA/s1600/thestate-badjuxtapose-uscshooting-marked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vWHW1BjktL4/VNk_FkqZ8sI/AAAAAAAACW0/qaLlWMI63zA/s1600/thestate-badjuxtapose-uscshooting-marked.jpg" height="640" width="363" /></a></div><br />http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/02/at-times-of-trauma-pay-special.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-3726978332871928763Tue, 13 Jan 2015 14:42:00 +00002015-01-13T09:42:40.558-05:00database journalismeconomicslocal governmentreportingreporting toolsData journalism: Cool site on counties' economic recoveryThe National Association of Counties has put out a cool site that <a href="http://explorer.naco.org/" target="_blank">looks at economic indicators for every county throughout the country</a>, and the picture is not great -- aside from the great oil swath in the middle of the country.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iV4WPPuEdK0/VLUubQ2zgxI/AAAAAAAACNw/c2y1n53ac78/s1600/countieseconomicmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="counties economic map" border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iV4WPPuEdK0/VLUubQ2zgxI/AAAAAAAACNw/c2y1n53ac78/s1600/countieseconomicmap.jpg" height="247" title="NACO map" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />Click on the counties in your area. This definitely could lend itself to more reporting.<br /><a href="http://www.governing.com/topics/finance/gov-county-economic-recovery-remains-uneven-report.html" target="_blank">More from Governing Magazine</a>.http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/01/data-journalism-cool-site-on-counties.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-8551093711206586101Fri, 09 Jan 2015 21:50:00 +00002015-01-09T18:09:37.193-05:00journalism educationjournalism futurePRCSJ: Are you ready for journalism education without 'journalism'?My latest Common Sense Journalism column. The importance of this was brought home to me again today when reading a student's description on her blog: <i>xxxxx is a senior at the University of South Carolina studying journalism.</i><br /><br />She may be in the journalism school, but she is studying public relations. The increasing conflation of these distinctly different things, especially in our students' minds, is dangerous.<br /><i> </i><br /><br /><hr /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For years, growing enrollments at journalism and communications schools have meant a steady stream of young, fresh-faced and motivated applicants willing to work for less than they might have made by taking their degrees elsewhere.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There have been dips, usually associated with the overall economy's problems, but enrollment eventually recovered and often grew stronger.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"What is different this time is that the economy is in a weak recovery, but enrollments are dropping," according to the latest study by Lee Becker and his team at the University of Georgia in Journalism and Mass Communication Educator.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Overall enrollment has dropped for the third straight year, and some reduction is probably a good thing, given the industry's sharp shrinkage that has been offset only partially by growth in digital.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But of much concern to Becker and his team is that advertising and public relations enrollments – areas that had largely withstood the storm – have also dropped.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Journalism "is not a growth area in terms of enrollments, and a focus on journalism as practiced in the past is not likely to attract student interest," they write.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That's a fair challenge to both the industry and education: Evolve or die. Unless you've been under a rock, that shouldn't be a surprise.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But then Becker and his team write this: "The data even hint that a focus on journalism as the curricular core of the field, as the common title of the field – journalism and mass communication education – might be dysfunctional from the point of view of attracting students.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Let that sink in for a moment. Schools might do better if they removed "journalism" from the name.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Don't think administrators aren't aware of this as they look at enrollments at a time when they are under increasing pressure to show their students are getting jobs.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Well, you might ask, as long as we can still teach the core components and values of journalism, what does it matter?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As the ad and PR pros among us know, out of sight is out of mind. Just ask those teaching journalism in a "communications" program or as part of an English department. There are exceptions, but I hear the frustrations from those folks at every journalism educators' meeting I attend.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In the same issue is a note from editor Maria B. Marron, "Content Creation Spans All Aspects of J-Programs."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's a "new era of storytelling," writes Marron, journalism college dean at the University of Nebraska. It's time, she continued, to acknowledge that journalists, PR professionals and other communicators "all share a concern for the First Amendment freedoms and that we have similar ethics – seeking truth, being honest and accurate, and having a mutual desire to serve the public interest."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">PR students should be taught to dig and to push their companies to make "ethical and socially just decisions," and journalists should stop using derogatory terms about PR people, she writes.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Then she delivers the coup de grace: "The ideal calls for a j-school education that places all forms of storytelling – brand journalism as well as in-depth reporting – on equal footing. ...</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Given the numbers in advertising, public relations, and strategic communications, in many of our academic programs, and the growth in opportunities related to content creation or storytelling, both curricular and cultural shifts are important."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Permit me to demur.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Despite the shared goal of storytelling, journalism is a fundamentally different enterprise from advertising, strategic communications or public relations. PR's underlying theme is, essentially, "trust us." Journalism's is "if your mother says she loves you, check it out."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This contrast is clear in the lead article of the recent issue of another journal, Mass Communication and Society. It is about "adjudication," the idea journalists should do more reporting to determine the validity of competing positions and fewer he said-she said stories.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Contrary to fears of some journalists that this could promote views of bias, the researchers found that adjudication tended to improve the perceived quality of the journalism. Of course, the adjudication would be needed less if politicians and their PR aides weren't trying to "shape" stories.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Some of the best PR professionals I've worked with have embodied that truth-telling ethic Marron calls for, even at the risk of their careers. And some of the worst journalists I've known have seen it as a mere inconvenience.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I want to turn out journalists who understand they live in a "content creation" world and how to navigate it. And I want budding PR people to develop the moxie to tell their bosses they're being stupid and not looking out for the public interest.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But the reality is they operate in different philosophical worlds.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I fear journalists may have become so used to the surplus of bright, young talent that they are inured to what is happening. But the table is being set in some places to remove "journalism" from journalism education. If you sit back and do nothing, don't be surprised when you find it missing.</span><br /><br /><hr />&nbsp;Past issues of Common Sense Journalism can be found at <a href="http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/csj/index.html">http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/csj/index.html</a>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2015/01/csj-are-you-ready-for-journalism.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-5285121872469906409Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:33:00 +00002014-12-09T17:33:01.331-05:00editingledeswritingLedes: Zig left, zag right - constructing thin air out of ... thin airYou don't have to be spot on the bull's eye when writing a lede, but it is nice if you kind of open somewhere in the general neighborhood of the story.<br /><br />It seems to be of fashion these days for writers to indulge their fantasies in ledes that start out with a faux anecdote -- one that is about as close to the actual point of the story as, say, Greenland is to Antarctica (well, yes, they're both cold) -- only to give the perplexed reader whiplash as it snaps back the point.<br /><br />Our <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/239752/half-of-all-video-views-by-mobile-within-a-year-o.html" target="_blank">latest exhibit</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">On Sept. 13, 1899, Henry Hale Bliss stepped off a streetcar at 74th and Central Park West, and walked right into the path of a taxicab, and into the record books. He was the first person in the Americas to be killed by a car. Getting killed by a car was a new thing, and very big news. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div dir="ltr">The Ooyala Q3 Global Video Index is the opposite of that.&nbsp;</div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr"><span>For several quarters in a row, Ooyala and other companies have been reporting growth--ridiculously large increases--in online video viewership or other up-worthy stats. &nbsp;Ooyala is &nbsp;doing that again this morning and it’s news only in that the numbers are growing at such a absurdly fast clip, all around the world, so that now the thing to do is find the biggest crazy number, and note it.</span></div></blockquote><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr"><span>&nbsp;What's even worse is when you're on a mobile device (or even on a desktop reading a digest) and the summary line actually gives you a sense of the news -- only to click through and have to wade through this to get back to the original point.</span></div><div dir="ltr"><span><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span>No one's suggesting you have to be sparse about it, but a little less self-indulgence, please.</span></div>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/12/ledes-zig-left-zag-right-constructing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-3727008633060876854Tue, 11 Nov 2014 16:00:00 +00002014-11-11T11:00:44.465-05:00style-APusageAP style: 'Justify'AP has issued one of its periodic style updates, and one might be of interest to usage mavens:<br /><br /><i>Justify: Smith justified his actions means Smith demonstrated that his actions were right. If the actions are still controversial, say Smith sought to justify his actions.&nbsp;</i><br /><br />It's much like refute (proved) and rebut (sought to prove). I like it, but as with all usage issues, AP is splitting hairs a tad. For instance, Merriam-Webster's entry first lists <i>to provide or be a good reason for (something) : to prove or show (something) to be just, right, or reasonable, to provide a good reason for the actions of (someone).</i><br /><br />To "provide" is a tad less than the AP's take, which would fall more under "prove."<br />AP is in more line with its master dictionary, Webster's New World 5th: <i>to show to be just, right, or in accord with reason; vindicate</i>. <br /><br />American Heritage is similar :&nbsp; <i>To demonstrate or prove to be just, right, or valid.</i><br /><br />M-W is always considered the more liberal. And in the digital age you've got to deal with the reality that many people are going to get their usage sense from places like Your Dictionary.com (<i>The definition of justify is to provide an explanation or rationale for something to make it seem OK or to prove it is correct or OK.</i>) or Dictionary.com (<i><span><span class="oneClick-link">to</span> <span class="oneClick-link">show</span> <span class="oneClick-link">(an</span> <span class="oneClick-link">act,</span> <span class="oneClick-link">claim,</span> <span class="oneClick-link">statement,</span> <span class="oneClick-link">etc.)</span> <span class="oneClick-link">to</span> <span class="oneClick-link">be</span> <span class="oneClick-link">just</span> <span class="oneClick-link">or</span> <span class="oneClick-link">right;</span></span><span class="dbox-example"><span></span></span><span class="def-number"><span><span class="oneClick-link"></span></span></span><span class="oneClick-link"> to</span> <span class="oneClick-link oneClick-available">defend</span> <span class="oneClick-link">or</span> <span class="oneClick-link">uphold</span> <span class="oneClick-link">as</span> <span class="oneClick-link oneClick-available">warranted</span> <span class="oneClick-link">or</span> well-grounded</i>), both of which are less restrictive.<br /><div class="def-set"><span class="oneClick-link oneClick-available"></span><div class="def-content"> </div></div><br />So be aware.http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/11/ap-style-justify.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-3254147200714984044Mon, 03 Nov 2014 15:32:00 +00002014-11-14T16:00:35.885-05:00digital mindsetMcClatchyonline-generalHow to annoy your readers, McClatchy styleMcClatchy has apparently found a new way to torture readers who go to at least some of its websites -- the ad intercept screen that has no ad on it and asks you if you want to read a story that's not the one you clicked through.<br /><br />Is it any wonder that <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=MNI" target="_blank">McClatchy's stock</a> (MNI) is in the tank?<br /><br />McClatchy keeps talking about how <a href="http://media.mcclatchy.com/smedia/2014/03/24/17/45/SYS83.So.32.pdf" target="_blank">digital is its future</a> (PDF). But I've yet to see this company really show that it understands how online works -- except to annoy readers with websites that don't display or print correctly, or have so much underlying crap code they slow down browsers.<br /><br />For a while, I thought MNI was sort of getting it with its redesign (though the design still is about five years behind where forward-looking operations like <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> are going). And then this stuff crops up.<br /><br />Here are a few screenshots from Myrtle Beach and Rock Hill. (I already had tripped The State's cookie by the time I decided to see if this was at other MNI sites, so I'm not getting the screen there right now -- but I will as soon as I sign out and clear session cookies.)<br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-87-AZNzA978/VFefCVTBVjI/AAAAAAAAB30/-QKC4iyduI4/s1600/Screenshot007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-87-AZNzA978/VFefCVTBVjI/AAAAAAAAB30/-QKC4iyduI4/s1600/Screenshot007.jpg" height="127" width="400" /></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j6PydI6FOkY/VFefCRNGKnI/AAAAAAAAB3w/xit_bGNbac0/s1600/Screenshot008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j6PydI6FOkY/VFefCRNGKnI/AAAAAAAAB3w/xit_bGNbac0/s1600/Screenshot008.jpg" height="127" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rock Hill and Myrtle Beach screens that appear when you try to click through a story. Notice "skip this ad" in upper right - but there's no ad. So why annoy readers? Upper left is a suggestion to read a story -- one that's different from the one you clicked through to read.</td></tr></tbody></table><b>Update 11/14</b><br />Matt Derienzo expounds on the Nieman blog about <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/11/in-a-rush-to-maintain-profits-newspapers-are-abandoning-the-art-of-customer-service/" target="_blank">how newspapers in general are ditching the idea of customer service.</a>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-to-annoy-your-readers-mcclatchy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-1123554047269198207Fri, 31 Oct 2014 12:42:00 +00002014-10-31T08:43:40.181-04:00comedyjournalismreportingAlice Fraser takes a comedic look at modern journalismAustralian comedian Alice Fraser takes a wonderfully sardonic look at modern journalism in her <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/article/2014/10/29/why-journalists-dont-fact-check-anymore" target="_blank">"Why journalists don't fact check anymore."</a><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="Body"><span lang="EN-US">This is the way news works now. Speculation regurgitated as fact, swallowed as news, excreted as statistic, rehashed as opinion and commented on as though it were a completely different article about something else entirely. Since the 100% true story from history of that emperor who wasn</span><span lang="FR">’</span><span lang="EN-US">t wearing any clothes but everyone agreed that he was wearing clothes because the SMH had picked up a picture of some clothes from Reuters, news has been full of circle-jerk hearsay, the kind of drippy dribbling mouth to mouth communication that coughs itself up into a &nbsp;foetid phlegm of hot, secondhand, coagulated lung fluid. Or so I hear. I</span><span lang="FR">’</span><span lang="EN-US">ll have to check Wikipedia. Let</span><span lang="FR">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s just agree to agree that the News is as fukt as the world or that Ikea table I shouldn</span><span lang="FR">’</span><span lang="EN-US">t have just tried to sit on, and I don</span><span lang="FR">’</span><span lang="EN-US">t know that we can fix it. Just, maybe don</span><span lang="FR">’</span><span lang="EN-US">t trust it with your full bodyweight.&nbsp;</span></div></blockquote><div class="Body"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="Body"><span lang="EN-US">Read the whole article. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.</span></div>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/10/alice-fraser-takes-comedic-look-at.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-74034592616487959Tue, 07 Oct 2014 14:36:00 +00002014-10-07T10:39:09.437-04:00editingusageWhen prescriptivism scrapes the railing: plethoraI love the Testy Copy Editors blog overseen by Phil Blanchard. It's one of my daily go-tos.<br /><br />But occasionally, as is always going to happen at places that ruminate over usage and other editorial matters, the danger is that things take on a "get off my lawn" tone. It happens in this space too, regrettably, though I try to avoid it.<br /><br />So from TCE today <a href="http://www.phillipblanchard.com/testy/2014/10/07/usage-corner/comment-page-1/" target="_blank">comes this</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>Shannon Serpette of Henry is our new copy editor. She comes to the BCR with a plethora of writing experience. Her smiling face is a great addition to our department, and she’s also going to continue doing some writing. If you get a phone call from Shannon or have the opportunity to chat with her, please help us welcome her into the BCR family.</i><br />(<a href="http://www.phillipblanchard.com/testy/2014/10/07/usage-corner/comment-page-1/Shannon%20Serpette%20of%20Henry%20is%20our%20new%20copy%20editor.%20She%20comes%20to%20the%20BCR%20with%20a%20plethora%20of%20writing%20experience.%20Her%20smiling%20face%20is%20a%20great%20addition%20to%20our%20department,%20and%20she%E2%80%99s%20also%20going%20to%20continue%20doing%20some%20writing.%20If%20you%20get%20a%20phone%20call%20from%20Shannon%20or%20have%20the%20opportunity%20to%20chat%20with%20her,%20please%20help%20us%20welcome%20her%20into%20the%20BCR%20family." target="_blank" title="bcr">Bureau County Republican</a>, Princeton, Ill.)</blockquote><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Once Shannon is through her probation, she can put on her big smile and tell the boss to look up the meaning of “plethora,” which the boss probably thought was a compliment.</blockquote>&nbsp;And, true, the classic definition of plethora means an overabundance, an excess, of something.<br /><br />Bryan Garner, still considered the leading authority on American usage, hews to that side of the word, though his latest volume, now at the ripe old age of 5, is starting to age a bit in these digital times when usage changes have gone from glacial to, at least, climate change proportions.*<br /><br />So posts like TCE's need to acknowledge that maybe some change has crept into the conversation. No less than the Oxford Dictionaries <a href="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/plethora" target="_blank">is now suggesting usage has changed.</a><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">usage: Strictly, a plethora is not just an abundance of something, it is an excessive amount. However, the new, looser sense is now so dominant that it must be regarded as part of standard English.</blockquote><br />We must not become so pedantic that we don't stop and take a deep breath before pulling the trigger.<br /><br />------<br />* While Garner says, "Although W11 [Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed 2003)] seems to countenance this meaning, it is unrecorded in the OED and in most other dictionaries. And it represents and unfortunate degeneration of sense."<br /><br />But things change. Here is the latest entry from the Oxford English Dictionary online (this is the big boy, available only through very expensive subscription, not the slimmer sibling I linked to above):<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Usu. with <i>of</i>. Originally in pejorative sense: an excessive supply, an overabundance; an undesirably large quantity. Subsequently, and <b>more usually,</b> in neutral or favourable sense: a very large amount, quantity, or variety. (emphasis mine)</blockquote>So, yes, the careful writer will take note. But the peevers among us should also.<br /><br />Otherwise, why not open up the shopworn debate on "decimate" while we're at it?http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/10/when-prescriptivism-scrapes-railing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-7281238226455013191Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:48:00 +00002014-10-03T11:53:42.636-04:00brevityeditingFrom the brevity files -- how to sound like a tool (again)Today's superfluous wording <a href="http://www.thestate.com/2014/10/02/3719047/police-child-was-accidentally.html" target="_blank">from The State</a> (though the TVs thoughtlessly do this all the time):<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Lexington County Coroner Earl Wells said Ethan Payne, 13, of Lexington, <b>died after sustaining a single gunshot wound.</b></blockquote><br />Or, in plain English: <i>died after being shot once.</i><br /><br />Do we really want to sound like a tool of the authorities that much? Are we that insecure?<i> </i>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/10/from-brevity-files-how-to-sound-like.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-4901932617249259062Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:31:00 +00002014-09-25T18:31:30.653-04:00headlinesHeadlines: Where you put the atttibution can be importantIt's worth some attention to where you put the attribution in a headline.<br /><br />There's this gem from Reuters, courtesy of James Montalbano over at <a href="http://www.phillipblanchard.com/testy/" target="_blank">Testy Copy Editors.</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4tbClaqDMdg/VCSW0jB3IwI/AAAAAAAAB0U/jIaFfuhczow/s1600/Screenshot001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4tbClaqDMdg/VCSW0jB3IwI/AAAAAAAAB0U/jIaFfuhczow/s1600/Screenshot001.jpg" height="182" width="400" /></a></div><br />http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/09/headlines-where-you-put-atttibution-can.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-6618989226064994914Wed, 17 Sep 2014 14:38:00 +00002014-09-17T10:38:20.005-04:00FOISC FOIA: The legislative exemptionThe Nerve has <a href="http://thenerve.org/news/2014/09/17/FOIA-exemption/" target="_blank">an interesting piece</a> this morning on a big exemption to the state's open-records law as the legislature moves forward to close some holes punched in the FOIA this year by court rulings.<br /><br />This one puts much of the Legislature's correspondence off-limits.<br /><br />It's a tough nut: While I tend to not want to delve into the average Joe's or Jane's plea for help with , say, a workers' comp claim, I sure would like to know if the Koch brothers are trying to influence folks.<br /><br />And this from state <a href="http://www.scstatehouse.gov/member.php?code=0912499891" target="_blank">Sen. Brad Hutto</a> is a bit disingenous: “Ultimately, all we do is public. ... How we come to a decision may not be totally public, but when we actually vote, it’s on the record.”<br /><br />That would be the point -- the coming to is often far more important than the final vote.http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/09/sc-foia-legislative-exemption.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-5363554078422536263Thu, 11 Sep 2014 20:23:00 +00002014-09-11T20:28:15.729-04:00crime newsFOIFOIA: Another little chip away in South Carolina - criminal suspects' birthdatesS.C. officials will find any way they can to withhold more information, it seems. This from The State newspaper this week:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The S.C. Department of Public Safety said it no longer will release the date of birth in incidents the agency handles.<br /><br />Failure to provide that information makes it nearly impossible for the public or the media to determine whether a suspect or victim has a criminal history. SLED requires the public to provide a date of birth to do such a search.<br /><br />The agency’s legal staff cites two state laws to bolster its decision: The Family and Personal Identifying Information Privacy Protection Act and a financial identity fraud law.<br /><br />“Insofar as the FPPA precludes the agency from releasing a date of birth, its provisions supersede any release that would be required by FOIA,” Public Safety spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli said, referring to overriding the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).<br /><br />The crime of identity theft lists 10 examples of personal information that can be used to steal financial identity. The lists includes bank account numbers, Social Security and driver’s license numbers and credit card numbers. The last example cited in the law for personal identification is a date of birth.</blockquote>&nbsp;We can debate victim's birthdates. But when someone has been charged, I don't think their privacy is in the mix<br /><br /><b>Update</b><br />Wes Wolfe had some interesting insight on Facebook in reaction to this post:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}">I've seen this sort of crap from law enforcement agencies and it's infuriating because it's so unnecessary. It's a way of asserting control of a piece of information that makes your job harder specifically to show they have control and can make your job harder.</div></blockquote><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}">Currently in North Carolina when an agency does this I can check court dates on the state courts network or check the state DPS site -- if the suspect had a previous conviction that resulted in probation or prison time -- and get the DOB like I should have 10, 15 or 30 minutes earlier. It's creating and/or aggravating an adversarial relationship between law enforcement and the press when there doesn't need to be one.</div></blockquote><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}"> Considering the number of times people with the same name or fathers and sons both have current charges or convictions, DOB goes a long way toward making sure the right person's identified. </div></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="color: black; font: 10pt sans-serif; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-transform: none; width: 1px;"><br />Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/09/09/3671227_officials-silence-on-trooper-shooting.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy</div></blockquote>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/09/foia-another-little-chip-away-in-south.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-5914152507063746419Sun, 07 Sep 2014 20:50:00 +00002014-09-07T16:58:51.806-04:00advertisingbusinessconsumer reportsethicsnews businessThe StateCaveat emptor: Comptek/Universal Media Syndicate, Aereo and morally challeged newspapersWe've all seen them, the full-page ads for Amish heaters (where it doesn't exactly say but where, apparently, primarily only the frames are made by the Amish), "rare" coins and bills, etc. While the debate about "native advertising" in digital rages <a href="http://www.onthemedia.org/story/even-blurrier-lines/" target="_blank">in various forums </a>(punctuated by John Oliver's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_F5GxCwizc" target="_blank">hilarious takedown </a>of it), the old-fashioned "advertorial" has become more and more a staple (from my observations) for cash-strapped newspapers.<br /><br />But even newspapers have some moral, if not legal, obligation, it seems to me to at least give these things a vetting for being misleading -- and, frankly, from a business sense, too, since this kind of stuff doesn't do much to help your already steadily eroding credibility.<br /><br />This ad was in The State newspaper today (The State is happy hunting ground for all these ads) on page A13. It's not masquerading -- it is clearly labeled as "Special Advertising Feature":<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VkYoTspI4oI/VAy-htCK6VI/AAAAAAAAByU/cbMkzkzwzAY/s1600/tvantennaad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VkYoTspI4oI/VAy-htCK6VI/AAAAAAAAByU/cbMkzkzwzAY/s1600/tvantennaad.jpg" height="278" width="400" /></a></div><br />But what the ad is trying to do is trade off what may be for many people some dim recollection of this thing called the Aereo case that got headlines a few months ago when the Supreme Court <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/aereo-analysis-scorecard-715312" target="_blank">ruled against</a> the company. The ad artfully misstates what Aereo really was, however:<br /><ul><li>Yes, it did use "mini" antennas.</li><li>But they were in a bank of antennas in a huge warehouse in Brooklyn, for instance. </li><li>And they were not so much designed to plug into your TV as to enable you to watch your over-the-air free TV stations on your computer anywhere you wanted to.</li><li>And, finally, <b>consumers have been able to get "free TV" as long as TV has been on the air </b></li></ul>There's no evidence I see that this "slick little $88 device" that "pulls in crystal-clear digital TV channels for free with no monthly bills" does any more than <a href="http://www.walmart.com/c/kp/digital-antenna" target="_blank">a $15 or $25 antenna from Wal-Mart</a> (or other retailers) that you can plug right into the back of your digitally enabled flat screen. And if you happen to have an old analog TV, you can add a <a href="http://www.walmart.com/c/kp/cable-converter-box" target="_blank">digital converter box</a> for about $35, bringing the total cost to maybe $60 instead of almost $100 with shipping and handling. Heck, o<a href="http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ematic-AT103B-Digital-Converter-Box-with-LED-Display-and-Recording-Capabilities/28505040#Item+Description" target="_blank">ne of those boxes will even record shows</a> if you plug in a large-enough digital drive.<br /><br />The ad promoting the "Clear-Cast" and using as a source "Comptek, 8000 Freedom Ave., Canton, Ohio, 44720," is artfully worded to avoid legal issues, things like "consumers who have a slick little micro antenna device will receive all of the major network Hollywood movies broadcast over the air for free." Yep, and you can receive those same movies with one of those cheaper antennas or, if you have an enabled flat screen, artfully shaped aluminum foil shoved into the antenna input, it would seem. Always have been able to. (Any implication that wording might make in the minds of the slightly informed and hugely gullible that they might get things like HBO or even TNT is, of course, an unintended consequence, I'm sure.)<br /><br />No surprise here. Universal Media Syndicate, the operation behind these questionable ads, has been the subject of<a href="http://stopthecap.com/2012/04/02/clear-cast-hdtv-antenna-subject-of-better-business-bureau-review-ad-confuses-consumers/" target="_blank"> numerous complaints.</a><br /><br />The only "slick little device" in this ad is the wording. <br /><br />But at what point does a paper like The State have to make some moral decisions and say enough is enough? You no longer can separate the newsroom from the business, as if you ever really could. And that makes it even more important that news organizations -- newsroom, ad, business and corporate -- examine their morals and ethics when it comes to things like this.<br /><br />(And I haven't exactly seen press associations rushing to rethink this, either.) <br /><br />Oh, indeed, the almighty dollar is tempting -- and sorely needed -- at times like this. But if news organizations don't do it with an enlightened sense of what they are about, they will ultimately be almighty dead. Because, you see, even the dullest consumers have flashes of brilliance, and when they do these days, all they have to do is hit a button ...http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/09/caveat-emptor-comptekuniversal-media.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-527178541677231559Sun, 07 Sep 2014 20:06:00 +00002014-09-07T16:11:06.473-04:00FOIThe StateFOIA: Kudos to The State for laying out the problemsThe State newspaper, in conjunction with McClatchy's chain-wide news service, does a good job today of laying out t<a href="http://www.thestate.com/2014/09/07/3664301/independent-workers-raise-questions.html?sp=/99/205/&amp;ihp=1" target="_blank">he abuses of using "contract" workers</a> in the construction industry.<br /><br />But deserving of just as much of a kudos is the paper's sidebar, <b><span class="ng_factbox_head">Getting records from Columbia Housing Authority is expensive, slow</span></b><span class="ng_factbox_head">, that lays out how agencies do their best to make it hard to get information. In this case it was charging more than $1,400 for the records in which the Social Security numbers were redacted.</span><br /><span class="ng_factbox_head"><br /></span><span class="ng_factbox_head">One thing that might have made this a bit stronger was taking the $1,075 for copying costs and dividing it by the number of pages (three boxes of records) to show how much the Columbia Housing Authority wanted per page. Since the authority also charged for workers' time, the only copying charge should have been for actual copying costs -- and anything over a nickel or, possibly, a dime (next thing, FOI the agency's copier contracts to see what it is paying) is suspect.</span><br /><span class="ng_factbox_head"><br /></span><span class="ng_factbox_head">We need to do this more, every time we run up against this kind of thing. And we need to make sure it is framed in a way that says it is the public, not journalists, who are being cheated.</span><br /><span class="ng_factbox_head"><br /></span><span class="ng_factbox_head">Also in the story is the state's refusal to release audits or much other information because of the legal opinion that federal law makes workers' comp info private. However, there are a string of state and federal court cases also saying in general that off-limits info can be redacted and the rest released. This is why I do hope to win the lottery so I can establish an FOI foundation that will have the primary mission of providing low-cost or free legal assistance so these cases can be litigated quickly and often. Without that, it's sort of like the chocolate candies in Candy Crush -- the dodges just keep proliferating until they take over.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="ng_factbox_head">Getting records from Columbia Housing Authority is expensive, slow</span></b></span><br />It wasn’t easy or cheap to find out how many companies classified workers as independent contractors on the controversial Village at River’s Edge project and another project financed with federal stimulus dollars.<br /><br />After receiving a Freedom of Information Act request, the Columbia Housing Authority took more than four months to supply three boxes of records to The State newspaper. The authority also charged the newspaper $1,425 for the right to review the documents. The newspaper paid the amount under protest.<br /><br />State law allows public bodies to waive fees for documents when the information sought is in the public interest, but the authority chose not to do so.<br /><br />The authority said it had to copy payroll sheets so it could redact the Social Security numbers of workers. The authority’s bill included $1,075 for copying costs. The remainder of the cost was to pay for staff time to prepare the records, the authority said.<br /><br />Neither the Housing Authority of the city of Charleston nor the State Housing Finance and Development Authority charged anything for records they supplied. Each responded to the newspaper’s Freedom of Information Act request about a month after it was made.<br /><div style="color: black; font: 10pt sans-serif; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-transform: none; width: 1px;"><br />Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/09/07/3664301/independent-workers-raise-questions.html?sp=/99/205/&amp;ihp=1#storylink=cpy</div>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/09/foia-kudos-to-thestate-for-laying-out-dodge.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0Columbia, SC, USA34.0007104 -81.03481440000001633.5796499 -81.68026140000002 34.421770900000006 -80.389367400000012tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-693540615209532776Fri, 05 Sep 2014 18:19:00 +00002014-09-05T14:19:39.286-04:00educationFOIFOIA: Bill Rogers guest postA guest post this week by the S.C. Press Association's Bill Rogers praising some school board members for having the backbone to walk out of a board meeting that might have been illegal.<br /><br />As you read through consider the lawyer's comment, which brings to mind the retort, <i>Well, if you'd stop practicing the law and actually become proficient at it ...</i><br /><br /><h2>Lowcountry board members show guts to leave secret meeting they thought illegal</h2><br /> <div class="entry"> <div class="postbody entry clearfix"> <div class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_14098" style="width: 262px;"><a href="http://scnewsexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/BillColor1.jpg"><img alt="Bill Rogers" class="size-medium wp-image-14098" height="300" src="http://scnewsexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/BillColor1-252x300.jpg" width="252" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text"><br /></div></div><strong>By Bill Rogers</strong><br />Three school board members in the Lowcountry took a courageous step last week when they refused to attend an executive session they felt was illegal.<br /> <br />If more public officials refused to participate in improper or illegal secret meetings, we would have far more transparency in government.<br /> <br />The secret meeting was to view proposals to renovate an old school into district administration offices to the tune of $1.6 million.<br /> <br />So what is the need for secrecy? Shouldn’t the public be privy to this presentation and discussion?<br /> <br />The action by the three came when the Jasper County School Board held a called meeting to hear contractor presentations for proposed new district offices.<br /><br />Board members Tedd Moyd and Debra Butler walked out of the meeting early.<br /> <br />Board member Randy Horton said he did not show up to the meeting after reading the agenda because he did not want to be a part of any illegal actions.<br /> <br />Moyd disagreed with the board holding the meeting in executive session as opposed to a public meeting for residents to be informed.<br /> <br />“It should have been a public meeting,” Moyd said. “…This is public education, why are we holding meetings like this in executive session? It makes us look like we’re hiding something,” he told a local newspaper reporter.<br /> <br />Mr. Moyd hits the nail on the head. Too often board members don’t stand up to school superintendents and their lawyers, many of whom have no appreciation of the concept of open government in our state.<br /> <br />School board attorney Kenneth L. Childs has expressed concern that encouraging citizen board members to not attend what they thought was an illegal meeting was “encouraging public officials not to perform their official duties.”<br /> <br />The opposite is true.<br /> <br />Let’s hope other school board and council members recognize they, as individuals, have a duty to obey the Freedom of Information Act and stand up for open government.<br /><br />When that happens, the public wins.<br /> <br />Childs wrote to complain that I was giving school board members incorrect lay legal advice.<br /> <br />SCPA Attorney Jay Bender said, “To the contrary, Bill was giving much-needed civics advice&nbsp; –&nbsp; advice that many school board members never receive.”<br /> <br />We don’t need backroom politics and secrecy…we’ve had enough of that. Let the sun shine in.</div></div>http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/09/foia-bill-rogers-guest-post.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408033.post-4031903075117403711Tue, 02 Sep 2014 12:30:00 +00002014-09-02T08:30:01.926-04:00bookmarksConvergence NewsletterresearchNew archive for The Convergence NewsletterThe Convergence Newsletter archives have a new address:<br /><br /><a href="http://sc.edu/cmcis/archive/convergence/">http://sc.edu/cmcis/archive/convergence/</a><br /><br />http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2014/09/convergencenewsletterarchive.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug Fisher)0